The announced candidates for the Colorado Republican Party’s statewide officer elections made the rounds in the metro area on Saturday, pressing the flesh and making their pitches at GOP county reorganizations.

All four of the Republicans in the running – chair hopefuls George Athanasopoulos, a former congressional candidate, and Jeff Hays, the outgoing chair of the El Paso County GOP, along with the lone vice chair candidate Sherrie Gibson, and state party secretary Brandi Meek, who is unopposed seeking a second term – stressed the importance of next year’s elections, when Colorado votes in a new governor and control of the Legislature could be up for grabs.

“We have to have common vision, that 20/20 vision of 33, 18 and one,” Hays said at the Jefferson County Republican Party’s meeting at Green Mountain High School in Lakewood. “We’ve got to have majorities in the House, majorities in the Senate and that big majority at the governor’s mansion if we want to win the reapportionment map.”

Addressing Republicans at the Denver County GOP’s meeting, Athanasopoulos promised that, as chair, he would support whoever wins what is shaping up to be a crowded primary, but then declared that staffing an office year-round and full-time in Denver was one of the keys to winning.

“Whoever that nominee is has to do well in Denver,” he said, noting that Democrats run up huge margins in the city, lightening their load elsewhere in the state. “How does that person do well in Denver if the Denver GOP does not get support?”

“We have to win that governor’s race,” said Meek at the Jeffco meeting. “If we don’t win the governor’s race, we do not have that much influence over the redistricting and reapportionment that comes after the Census (in 2020). That means if we blow that opportunity, we don’t get another opportunity until 2032.” After the cries of astonishment from the crowd died down, she underlined the point by noting that her two young children will be grown by then.

Gibson, who served as chief of staff for Republican Senate candidate Darryl Glenn’s through his underdog win in the June primary, told the Jeffco crowd that she knew how to put together a winning campaign.

“I built that ground operation across this state, and I want to do that for our party,” she said. “I want Republicans to take back the gubernatorial mansion in 2018, I want to win down the ticket.”

The Republican state central committee is set to meet on the morning of Saturday, April 1, at Englewood High School to pick a chair, vice chair and secretary for two-year terms. The bulk of the Republicans voting in that election will be picked at county meetings held throughout the month of February. (The committee is made up of the same three officers from each of Colorado’s 64 counties, along with bonus members awarded based on the number of votes for the top of the ticket in more populous counties, as well as elected officials.)

In addition to Denver and Jefferson counties, Republicans met on Saturday for biennial reorganizations in Arapahoe, Broomfield, Gunnison and Prowers counties.

Among the other larger counties, Pueblo kicked things off last Wednesday, while Adams, El Paso, Larimer, Mesa and Weld counties are set to meet on Saturday, Feb. 11.

The rivals for the single contested statewide officer race laid out contrasting visions for their candidacies, with Hays talking about his experience running the party in one of the most reliably Republican counties in the state and Athanasopoulos vowing to shake things up while supporting the caucus system and closed primaries.

“It’s important to know that I have been the El Paso County chairman for four years,” Hays said at the Jeffco meeting. “I have run big caucuses and assemblies. We have raised money that built the party. And we have won elections. And I think those three things are what you’re looking for in a state party chairman.”

He detailed the county party’s success with fundraising, recruiting and training volunteers, expanding the email list and turning out Republican voters.

“We have great relationships vertically with the RNC and state party reps,” Hays said. “We built a great team horizontally, with all our candidates. We’re going to do that again at the state party, because we have a few Senate races we need to win here in this county. Absolutely, we’re going to.”

Athanasopoulos spent most of his allotted time at the microphone in Jeffco thanking his fellow county Republicans for their support in his congressional run last year challenging U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, but he also used that run to drive home a point about the caucus system.

“As you know, my last day of active duty was 26 February of last year,” the Army veteran said. “I filed paperwork with the FEC on 28 February, and I was at precinct caucuses March 1. I had no name recognition, I was a nobody, but I wanted to make a difference, I wanted to do the right thing.”

He made the point more explicitly speaking to the Denver crowd.

“I support the caucus system and the ballot access it gives to ordinary citizens. Without the grassroots, we are a weaker party,” Athanasopoulos said, adding that he “wants all factions of the Republican Party to have a seat at the table.”

He also reminded Denver Republicans that he intends to file a lawsuit to block the adoption of Proposition 108, a statewide ballot measure approved last fall that will let unaffiliated voters cast ballots in either the Republican or Democratic primaries if they so desire.

“I’m of the opinion that if you want to play on my team, you’ve got to wear my jersey,” Athanasopoulos said to cheers. (Hays has expressed similar misgivings about the measure but says he wouldn’t sue to overturn it unless the Democrats joined him, arguing that the potential downside of Republicans losing the lawsuit would harm the party’s reputation with unaffiliated voters.)

Colorado Democrats are meeting in county reorganizations of their own this month, too, although under slightly different rules governing how the party’s state central committee is chosen. They’ll elect statewide officers on the morning of Saturday, March 11, at the Denver Marriott City Center.

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com